Former Arsenal player charged after £600,000 of cannabis seized at Stansted Airport

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas arrested after officers allegedly detected 60kg of drug in two suitcases off flight from Bangkok

Former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been charged in connection with an alleged attempt to smuggle £600,000 worth of cannabis through Stansted Airport.
The 33-year-old, who currently plays for Scottish Championship club Greenock Morton, was arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers shortly after 8am on Wednesday in Gourock, Inverclyde.
Thomas, who also played for Ipswich Town, Queens Park Rangers and Bristol City before moving to Scotland, was detained and questioned by officers, and has been remanded in custody ahead of an expected court appearance on Thursday.
Emmanuel-Thomas played for Arsenal and England at youth level but made only one senior appearance for the London club before leaving in 2011.
He was arrested after the NCA seized an estimated £600,000 of cannabis as it was allegedly being smuggled through Stansted Airport on September 2.
Border Force officers allegedly detected roughly 60kg of the Class B drug in two suitcases, which had arrived via a flight from Bangkok, Thailand.
Emmanuel-Thomas, who played in Thailand in 2019 before returning to the UK to play for Livingston and later Aberdeen, is expected to appear before Carlisle Magistrates Court on Thursday.
NCA senior investigating officer David Phillips said: “The NCA continues to work with partners like Border Force to target those involved in drug smuggling – that includes both the couriers and the organisers.
“We would appeal to anyone who is approached to engage in any kind of smuggling to think very carefully about the likely consequences of their actions and the potentially life-changing risks they will be taking.”
The charges against Emmanuel-Thomas come after the NCA issued a warning to travellers arriving into the UK from Thailand, Canada and the United States that they faced jail if caught attempting to bring cannabis into the country, after a huge upsurge in arrests.
So far this year, the agency says the amount of the drug seized is more than three times that in 2023.
The NCA also said drug couriers often report being told by their superiors they only risk a fine if caught, despite the maximum sentence for smuggling cannabis into the UK being 14 years behind bars.